Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia (Villanueva de la Serena, Extremadura, April 17, 1497-Tucapel, Governorate of Chile, December 25, 1553) was a Spanish soldier and conqueror of Extremaduran origin.
After participating in various military campaigns in Europe, Valdivia traveled to America, forming part of the hosts of Francisco Pizarro, governor of Peru. With the title of lieutenant governor granted by Pizarro, Valdivia led the Conquest of Chile beginning in 1540. In this role, he was the founder of the oldest cities in the country, including the capital Santiago in 1541, La Serena (1544), Concepción (1550), Valdivia (1552) and La Imperial (1552). In addition, he ordered the foundation of the cities of Villarrica and Los Confines (Angol).
In 1541 he received from his fellow conquerors organized in a council, the title of Governor and Captain General of the Kingdom of Chile, being the first to hold such positions. After containing the indigenous resistance and some conspiracies against him, he returned to the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1548, where Pedro de la Gasca confirmed his title to him. Back in Chile, he undertook the so-called Arauco War against the Mapuche people, in which he died in 1553 in the battle of Tucapel.
On several occasions he was accompanied by Francisco Martínez Vegaso or Don Francisco Pérez de Valenzuela, among other Spanish conquerors. He was also with the future Mapuche toqui Lautaro.
Origins
Family
Pedro de Valdivia was born on April 17, 1497 in the Spanish region of Extremadura, at that time belonging to the Crown of Castile. Valdivia's precise birthplace is still under discussion. In the region of La Serena, several towns dispute to be the cradle of the conqueror. The sources indicate Zalamea de la Serena as the place of birth, although many also indicate Castuera, where his birthplace and that of his ancestors are located. Campanario (where the Valdivia family originally hails from) and Zalamea de La Serena are also mentioned as alternatives to their origin.
Pedro de Valdivia belonged to a family of hidalgos with a certain military tradition, the House of Valdivia. The chronicler and soldier of the host of Valdivia, Pedro Mariño de Lobera, points out in his Chronicle of the Kingdom of Chile: «the governor Don Pedro de Valdivia was the legitimate son of Pedro de Onças (Arias) de Melo, Portuguese very sondalgo, and Isabel Gutiérrez de Valdivia, a native of the town of Campanario in Extremadura, of very noble lineage. However, no document (civil, military or ecclesiastical) has ever been found in the Spanish archives that supports this statement. On the other hand, the finished genealogical study The family of Pedro de Valdivia, published in 1935 by the Chilean scholar Luis de Roa y Ursúa (1874-1947), has established that the conqueror was most likely the legitimate son of Pedro Onças de Melo and his wife Isabel Gutiérrez de Valdivia, both of noble lineage.
Military experience in Europe and America
In 1520 he began his career as a soldier in the War of the Communities of Castile, and later he served in the army of Emperor Charles V, highlighting his participation during the campaigns of Flanders and the Italian Wars, in the battle of Pavía and in the assault on Rome. He married in Zalamea in 1525, with a noblewoman named Doña Marina Ortiz de Gaete, a native of Salamanca. In 1535 he left for the New World and would not see his wife again.
He undertook a trip to America in the expedition of Jerónimo de Ortal, arriving at the island of Cubagua in 1535 with the purpose of beginning the search for the fabulous El Dorado. In Tierra Firme he participated in the discovery and conquest of the province of Nueva Andalucía with his friend Jerónimo de Alderete, a comrade in arms in the War of the Communities of Castilla. He witnessed the foundation of San Miguel de Neverí in 1535. Disagreements with Ortal caused part of his expedition to abandon him in search of other, more promising horizons. Alderete, Valdivia and about forty other men were among the rebels. When they separated, they reached the territory of the Province of Venezuela under the control of the Welsers of Augsburg, and as deserters, the German authorities arrested them in Santa Ana de Coro, and the leaders were sent to Santo Domingo to be tried.
Valdivia, who was not among the leaders of the rebellion, was released and stayed in Coro. During that long stay he made friends with Francisco Martínez Vegaso, a Spanish lender in the service of the Welsers. Years later Valdivia, Alderete and Martínez would associate for the conquest of Chile.
After a period that is still unclear, in 1538 Valdivia went to Peru and enlisted in the forces of Francisco Pizarro, participating as his field master in the civil war that Pizarro had with Diego de Almagro. At the end of this conflict with Almagro defeated in the battle of Las Salinas, his military performance was recognized and rewarded with silver mines in Cerro de Porco (Potosí), and lands in the Canela Valley (Charcas). Close to this parcel was the plot assigned to the widow of a soldier, Inés Suárez, with whom he established an intimate bond, despite being married in Spain.
The route to Chile
Preparing the expedition
For the governor of Peru, the initiative brought some benefits and no cost. Valdivia left the Indian divisions and the mine available to another collaborator. In addition, the authorization did not involve financial support from the royal treasury, since it was customary for the conquerors to finance themselves. Yielding to the enthusiasm of the Master of the Field, he empowered him in April 1539 to go on to the conquest of Chile as his lieutenant governor, although "he did not favor me," Valdivia later wrote, "not even with a single peso from the Treasury of S.M. nor his, and at my expense and mission I made the people and expenses that were agreed for the day, and I owed myself for the little that I found borrowed, in addition to what I currently had.
Despite his efforts, difficulties in raising funds and soldiers came close to thwarting Valdivia's plan. The lenders considered the risk to their capital excessive, and the people shied away from enlisting in the conquest of the most discredited land in the Indies, considered since the return of Diego de Almagro as miserable and hostile, without gold, and with a very cold climate. As Valdivia said in a letter to Emperor Carlos V dated September 4, 1545:
There was no man who wanted to come to this land, and those who most fled from it were the ones who brought the Adelantado don Diego de Almagro, who, as he did, was so ill infamed, that as from the pestilence they fled from it; and even many people who loved me and were held by sanities, they did not have me for such a reason when I had to spend the hacienda that I had, in a company so far removed from Peru.
Until he turned to a well-known and wealthy merchant lender who was acting as an advance soldier, Francisco Martínez, who had just arrived from Spain with a supply of arms, horses, ironwork and other items highly prized in the colonies. Martínez agreed to associate to contribute, contributing his capital (9000 gold pesos in merchandise, valued by himself), in exchange for half of the profits produced by the company, a task that fell to Valdivia.
Finally, he managed to raise some 70,000 Castilian pesos, a small sum for the magnitude of the initiative, since at that time a horse, for example, cost 2,000. As for soldiers, only 11 enlisted in the adventure, plus the Placentina Inés Suárez, who sold her jewelry and everything she had to help Valdivia's expenses. She was going as his servant, to hide a bit that she was actually his lover and friend.
Just as he was about to set out, Pizarro's former secretary, Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz, who had returned to Spain after making his fortune in the early conquest of Peru, arrived in Cuzco. He returned with a royal certificate granted by the King that empowered him to explore the lands south of the Strait of Magellan, giving him the title of Governor of the lands he discovered there. At the request and manipulation of Pizarro, Valdivia and Sánchez de la Hoz entered into a company contract in which the former provided everything collected at the time, and the latter promised to provide fifty horses and two hundred armor and to equip two ships that after four months they had to bring various merchandise to Chile to support the expedition. That ill-fated society was going to cause numerous setbacks for Valdivia in the future, Valdivia not without reason considered Sánchez de la Hoz as an obstacle to his future patrimonial ambitions.
What motivated Pedro de Valdivia to undertake a project that almost everyone considered foolish? He thought that the discredited southern lands were suitable for establishing a government of an agricultural nature, and he believed that he could discover enough mineral wealth, although not as abundant as in Peru, but enough to support a province of which he was Lord. . Because above all Valdivia proposed to establish a new kingdom that would give him fame and power. "Leave fame and memory of me," he said. Although one more of the adventurous hidalgos who at that time came from Spain to "make America", Valdivia's talents were superior. He knew it well, and he was convinced that he would achieve renown in the "so badly infamous" Chile, because the more difficult the undertaking, the more fame for the entrepreneur. Shrewd, indefatigable, and with a great sense of timing, this daring, often reckless leader had the virtue—and perhaps the genius—to look up from trivial riches and see a future where others saw only trouble.
Start of the expedition
From the Cuzco sierra they descended east to the Arequipa valley, continuing south through the area near the coast. Passing through Moquegua and then Tacna, they camped in the Tarapacá ravine. During this journey, new auxiliaries joined the small host, until they totaled twenty Castilians. There was no news of Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz, who should have joined the expedition here by providing the species involved. The other partner of the company, the capitalist Francisco Martínez, had a serious accident and had to return to Peru.
News of Valdivia's march had spread throughout the highlands, and several soldiers joined him in Tarapacá. Among them, some who would later have a leading role in the conquest of Chile: Rodrigo Araya with sixteen soldiers; also Rodrigo de Quiroga, Juan Bohón, Juan Jufré, Gerónimo de Alderete, Juan Fernández de Alderete, the chaplain Rodrigo González de Marmolejo, Santiago de Azoca and Francisco de Villagra. The Pedro de Valdivia Expedition to Chile already numbered 110 Spaniards.
Then they left for Atacama la Chica following the Inca Trail where they made camps in Pica, Guatacondo and Quillagua to reach Chiu-Chiu. There Valdivia found out that his comrade from Italy Francisco de Aguirre was in Atacama la Grande (San Pedro de Atacama) and went out with some horsemen to meet him. This providentially saved his life.
In effect, Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz, who had remained in Peru trying to gather the agreed reinforcements, had only managed to collect old debts from him. But feeling backed by the royal designation of governor, one night in early June 1540 he arrived at Valdivia's camp in Atacama la Chica (Chiu-Chiu) together with Antonio de Ulloa, Juan de Guzmán, and two other accomplices. In stealth they approached the store where they supposed to find Valdivia sleeping, with the purpose of assassinating him and taking command of the expedition.
Upon entering the house in the dark, they noticed that Doña Inés Suárez was not in the bed, but Doña Inés Suárez, who gave loud cries of alarm and harshly reprimanded Pedro Sánchez, while he nervously apologized. After the camp was awakened by the disturbance of Doña Inés, the field bailiff Luis de Toledo came with some soldiers to punish the intruders, but seeing that it was the exalted character, he decided to send a messenger to alert Valdivia of the suspicious conduct. from your partner.
Upon his return, Valdivia, with poorly concealed anger, thought of hanging Sánchez de la Hoz, although he finally spared his life in exchange for renouncing in writing all rights (to his royal certificate) of expedition and conquest. Of the accomplices he banished three, but Antonio de Ulloa gained his trust and was incorporated into the hosts.
Atacama Desert and Valley of Possession
According to Vivar, by then the expedition completed "one hundred and fifty-three men and two clergymen, one hundred and five on horseback and forty-eight on foot", plus the thousand Indians on duty, whose slow pace the baggage load determined the pace of advance.
Upon entering the vast, dry and fearsome Atacama Desert, burning (40 to 45 °C) by day and freezing (-10 to -5 °C) at night, Valdivia divided the expedition into four groups, which marched separated by a day, thus giving time for the scarce water sources, exhausted by one group, to be able to recover while the next one arrived. The chief came out in the last squad, but he went ahead with two horsemen, to encourage his men, "watching how everyone carried out their work, he suffering with his body those of his own that were not small, and with his spirit those of all ».
In the depths of the desert, the encouragement of the leader became more necessary. From time to time they stumbled upon the dead remains of men and animals, some of the Almagro expedition: «The winds of the most places in this uninhabited area are so harsh and cold, says Pedro Mariño de Lobera, that it happens that the traveler comes close to a rock and remain frozen and stiff standing for many years, which seems to be alive, and thus mummy meat is taken from here in abundance". Along with pointing out the route, those corpses confirmed the fame of the country where Valdivia's initiative was taking them putting.
Perhaps afflicted by the macabre landscape, Juan Ruiz, one of the broken ones who had already been in Chile with Almagro, regretted the adventure. He secretly told his companions "that here there was not enough food for thirty men, and he was mutinying people to return to Peru." Warned of the sedition by his field master Pedro Gómez de Don Benito, Valdivia showed the other hard side of his leadership. He did not even allow the insurgent to confess and had him summarily hanged for treason, continuing without further ado.
The vanguard group of the expedition, headed by Alonso de Monroy, brought tools to improve the steps and prevent the horses from falling off the cliff. He also tried to deepen the small wells that the Indian guides knew, "because they had clear water that would not be lacking for the people who came behind". However, when they had been on their way for about two months through the driest desert on the planet, they only found springs exhausted, and the army thought they would perish in the battle against dehydration under the crushing Atacameño sun. The men were losing hope.
But not the woman. Mariño recounts that Inés Suárez ordered a Yanacona to dig "in the seat where she was," and when she had gone no more than one meter deep, the water gushed out abundantly like a stream, "and the entire army was satisfied, giving thanks to God for such mercy, and testifying that the water is the best that they have drunk, that of doña Inés' jahuel, which is how it was named. Although it is difficult to believe this prodigy, at least in the terms described by the valuable chronicler, the truth is that since then that place has been called Aguada de Doña Inés. It is located on a ravine named Doña Inés Chica, about 20 km northeast of El Salvador, and at the foot of a hill known as Cerro Doña Inés, located immediately to the north of the Pedernales Salt Flats.
A few days later the fatigues of the Despoblado ended, although "many service people, both Indians and blacks, perished." On Thursday, October 26, 1540, the expedition was able to camp on the banks of a pleasant stream where, says the aforementioned narrator, "not only did the men express extraordinary comfort at being out of so many calamities, even more so the horses also hinted at rejoicing." that they felt, with the neighing, freshness and spirit that they showed, as if they recognized the end of the work». They were in the splendid valley of Copiapó, or Copayapu in the indigenous language. Upon entering it, they had to face hosts of the Diaguita ethnic group, estimated by Lobera at eight thousand warriors, which they easily defeated, thus being able to settle in the valley.
As his jurisdiction began here, Valdivia called all the land in this valley to the south Nueva Extremadura in memory of his homeland. He had a wooden cross placed in a prominent place and then, recounts one historian, "the troops formed up in their military uniforms and their shining weapons and the priests sang the Te Deum, after which the artillery thundered, the drums and drums beat and the expedition members burst into cheers of joy. Immediately the conqueror, with a drawn sword in one hand and the banner of Castile in the other, took a few walks around the site with a martial air and declared possession of the valley, in the name of the King of Spain, and because he was the first inhabited territory of the conquest entrusted to him, he ordered it to be called the Valley of Possession".
Even in the midst of the general jubilation, a detail of this ceremony did not go unnoticed by some. Valdivia had to occupy the territory in the name of Governor Pizarro, of whom he was his lieutenant, but he did it in the name of King Carlos V, causing suspicion in the conquistadors who were less sympathetic to him. Some testified in the process that several years later he was followed before Viceroy La Gasca, «who arrived at the Copiapó valley (Valdivia) took possession of it by His Majesty, without taking provisions except for Don Francisco Pizarro by his lieutenant, giving us to understand that he was already governor".
Conquest of Chile
Santiago de Chile Foundation
Renew the march to the south following the Inca Trail. When it fell into the valley of the Laja river through the Putaendo valley, the cacique Michimalonco tried to stop it with skirmishes without success. He then advanced further south, crossing the large swamps of Lampa and Quilicura, until he reached the wide and fertile valley of the river called by the Picunche Mapuchoco (present-day Mapocho), which descends along the southern slopes of a hill called Tupahue. When facing a rock called Huelén in Mapudungún, the channel divided into two arms, leaving an island of flat land enclosed between its arms. There was a drought that year and the aborigines were in famine. Nearby, in the current location of the Mapocho Station, there was an Inca tambo that started towards the Cordillera the Camino de las Minas, which ended in the current La Disputada Mine of Las Condes, with at least two intermediate dairy farms. This road was used to travel to the apu of Cerro El Plomo, where offerings to Viracocha were held.
Valdivia set up camp on this island to the west of the rock called in Mapudungun Huelén, 'Stone of pain,' perhaps on December 13, the day of Saint Lucia. The place seemed suitable to found a city. Flanked to the north, south and east by natural barriers, the location allowed the conquerors to better defend the town from any indigenous attack. On the other hand, the aboriginal population was more abundant in the Mapocho valley than in the valleys further north, assuring the conquerors manpower to cultivate the land, and above all to exploit the mines that they still hoped to discover. despite the fact that the natives said they were scarce.
However, it seems that it was not his intention to make this gun settlement the character of the capital of the kingdom. Years later Valdivia would sell his lots and other assets in the Mapocho valley, establishing his residence in the city of La Concepción, which he estimated to be located in the center of his jurisdiction, had gold pans in its vicinity, and a huge population aboriginal.
On February 12, 1541, the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo was founded at the foot of Huelén, renamed Santa Lucía. The master builder Pedro de Gamboa laid out the city in the form of a checkerboard, dividing the land inside the fluvial island into blocks, which were divided into four lots for the first residents. The layout and formation of the city was followed in March by the creation of the first council, importing the Spanish legal and institutional system. The assembly was integrated by Francisco de Aguirre and Juan Jufré as mayors, Juan Fernández de Alderete, Francisco de Villagra, Martín de Solier and Gerónimo de Alderete as aldermen, and Antonio de Pastrana as attorney.
As soon as they were installed, Valdivia received some extremely serious information, although of unknown origin; It was spread in the colony that the Almagristas had assassinated Governor Francisco Pizarro in Peru. If the news were true, the powers of lieutenant governor of Valdivia and the distributions delivered to the neighbors could be automatically extinguished, when another conqueror from Peru came to rule the land and distribute it among his host.
Governor and Captain General
Considering the political situation in Peru, the council resolved to give Valdivia the title of Governor and Interim Captain General in the name of the King. Astute, Valdivia, until then Pizarro's Lieutenant Governor, initially publicly rejected the charge, so as not to look like a traitor before him in case he was still alive (Pizarro was assassinated 15 days later). However, faced with the threat of the neighbors to hand over the government to another, Valdivia, who in reality ardently wanted to be named Governor, accepted on June 11, 1541. Of course, he left a written record that he submitted to the decision of the people against his will, yielding only because the assembly made him see that thus he served God and the King better.
In this regard, it has been speculated that Valdivia himself managed to spread the rumor about Pizarro's death himself. Suspicion is supported by the following circumstance: despite the fact that the Governor of Peru was assassinated by the almagristas, the event did not take place until June 26, 1541, when Valdivia had already received the position of Governor of Chile from the town council of Santiago. In addition, it is somewhat strange that the man from Extremadura has refused not once, but three times, to accept; since there were presumptions about Pizarro's death, the council's request was entirely reasonable.
However it happened, it must be taken into account that while the Chilean company had not cost Pizarro more than the paper in which he extended the provision to Valdivia, he abandoned his comfortable position in Peru, assumed debts and accepted companies whose Terms bordered on usury, "to leave fame and memory of me" conquering what was believed to be the poorest land in the New World, "where there was no way to feed more than fifty neighbors."
The new colony
He holds the conqueror on his right hand the roll of the acta of the foundation of Santiago, and supports the left in the sword, symbol of justice. In the metaphor of the artist, the robust horse without reins is Chile, who walks to the future on his own from the work of the founder.
The houses of the village were built with the few materials available in the area, wood with mud plaster and thatched roofs. The plaza was an uncultivated stony ground with a large vertical beam embedded in the center, a symbol of the dominance of the King of Castile. A ditch supplied water from a slope of the Santa Lucía, crossing the town to the east. On the north side of the plaza was the Valdivia ranch, a ramada for the town hall assemblies, and the prison compound. The church and plots of the priests on the west front.
The main desire of the Governor was the discovery of gold, in turn an argument to attract new contingents to deepen the conquest and settlement. If he found it, he would justify the expedition and improve the spirits of the 150 adventurers who accompanied him, some of whom were already restless. It was taken for granted that gold would not be as abundant as in Peru, but it should have been, due to the tribute in metal that Chilean natives once paid to the Inca. Trying to discover where that contribution came from, and to provide themselves with food by stealing it from the Indians' fields, Valdivia and half of his men frequently went out to explore the surrounding valleys, leaving Alonso de Alonso as lieutenant governor in the village. Monroy.
One of those excursions took them to the coastal sector of the valley of Chile (Aconcagua) where a bellicose chief cacique, Michimalonco, the powerful cacique who ruled there and who already had experience with the Spanish presence having received in good faith, was waiting for them. terms to Diego de Almagro in 1535, and even earlier, to the first Spaniard to set foot on Chilean territory, Gonzalo Calvo de Barrientos.
Trenched in a fort with a large number of Indians "well equipped for war," the indigenous caudillo tried to take advantage of the departure of the invaders to take the fight to a tactically advantageous place for him, and first face only a fraction of them. them, and then account for the rest. He ordered Valdivia's troops to attack the fortress and take Michimalonco alive, who he hoped would be useful to him. After three hours of combat and the death of many Indians and barely one Spaniard, the Castilians finished ruining the fort, capturing Michimalonco and other Indian chiefs alive.
Determined to find the location of the gold and indigenous labor to extract it, he treated the captured very well, who apparently gave in to the attentions and in exchange for their freedom, guided the Castilians to their laundries in the ravines of the Marga estuary Marga, very close to the place of the battle. The chronicler soldier Mariño de Lobera says that upon seeing the task the Spaniards broke into expressions of joy:
And as if they already had the gold in the bags, they only thought if there were so many coasts and forks in the realm where to cast so much, and how soon they would go to Spain to make metal towers, starting from then to make them wind.
The caciques must have watched the scene with great interest, as an ally appeared unexpectedly for the defense of their soil: the invader's greed.
Pedro de Valdivia arranged for two soldiers with experience in mining operations to direct the more than a thousand labor Indians that the caciques had provided. Nearby, where the Aconcagua River flows into the beaches of Concón, an area at that time abundant in forests, he also ordered the construction of a brig to transport the gold to Peru, bring supplies, and embark the Spaniards there who, he imagined, would enlist in the conquest of Chile when confirming the existence of the metal. Captain Gonzalo de los Ríos was left in charge of watching over both companies, in command of about twenty-five soldiers.
At the beginning of August, Valdivia was personally supervising the work at the laundry and shipyard, when he received a written message from his lieutenant in Santiago, Alonso de Monroy, advising that there were clear indications of a conspiracy to assassinate him coming from Sánchez de la Sickle and its affinities. He immediately returned to the village and met with his most loyal captains, but there was no hard evidence against the suspects. The quality of these, two of them members of the Cabildo, advised extreme caution in proceeding. But these worries were interrupted by the news of a new and serious event, a catastrophe that would come to collapse the project of Valdivia, already well underway: Captain Gonzalo de los Ríos arrived in Santiago one night after an insane gallop, together with the black Juan Valiente. They were the only survivors of the disaster: Led by the chiefs Trajalongo and Chigaimanga, the Indians from the washhouses and the shipyard had risen up, no doubt because if they did not act at that moment, the arrival of more Spaniards on the ship would make it more difficult to expel them from her land. They lured the greedy soldiers with a pot full of gold, killing them in an ambush and then razing the two sites. The Governor left in a hurry with some horsemen to verify the state of the works, and if it was possible to resume the work, but "arriving at the site of the mines where the massacre had taken place, he had no opportunity to do anything other than mourn the damage that his eyes saw". Worse, the information he was able to gather revealed that the natives were preparing the general and definitive insurrection. The shipyard had been totally destroyed as well.
When Valdivia returned to Santiago, his countenance showed sorrow. Upon seeing him, one of those who conspired against him, a certain Chinchilla, could not prevent his joy from overflowing and he began to run around the square, jumping for joy with "a belt of bells." The Governor learned of this, whose The mood must not have been for delicacies by now, and he ordered him to be seized immediately to be hanged. Valdivia himself later told his King: «I made my investigation there (probably he tortured Chinchilla) and I found many guilty, but because of the need I was in (of soldiers) I hanged five who were the heads, and I hid with the others., and with this I assured the people». He adds that the Chilean conspirators agreed with the Peruvian almagristas, who were to kill Pizarro. For his part, Mariño de Lobera confirms that "the five confessed at the time of their death that it was true that they were mutinying." that the purpose of the coup plotters was to return to Peru, perhaps on the ship and with the gold. They belonged to the faction of the almagristas, which now ruled there, so their prospects were much better in that country than in this "bad land." His path, however, inevitably passed through the assassination of the Governor, since he did not allow anyone to leave the colony. The good chronicler Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo describes the feeling of the conspirators in these terms: «that they had been deceived; that it would be better for them to return to Peru than to be waiting for something uncertain since they did not see a sign of wealth on earth, and that it was not a fair thing for good men, that for making Lord Valdivia go through so many hardships and needs; that Valdivia was greedy for command and that by commanding he had hated Peru, and that now that he had them inside Chile they would be forced to do everything he wanted to do with them.
Good reasons, bad timing. After a very brief trial conducted by Bailiff Gómez de Almagro, together with Chinchilla, Don Martín de Solier, nobleman of Córdoba and councilor of the town council, Antonio de Pastrana, attorney and Chinchilla's father-in-law, and two other conspirators were executed. That time Pedro Sancho de la Hoz, a good friend of the clumsy rattlesnake Chinchilla, in whose company he had come from Peru, narrowly escaped. As a lesson to some other impatient who wanted to rebel, or even desert after the disaster of the gold and the brig, the corpses of the unfortunate floated in the wind on the gallows for a long time, at the top of the Santa Lucía, reinforcing its bad reputation for Rock of Pain.
The destruction of Santiago
After this second attempt to kill him, Valdivia had no choice but to proceed resolutely as he did. But although he strengthened his authority on the internal front, on the external front the situation of the Spaniards offered the indigenous leaders an unbeatable opportunity to try to expel them from their land or to exterminate them definitively. The murders of Spaniards must have seemed to the caciques evidence that the assault on Aconcagua had severely affected enemy morale, to the point that they were killing each other. In contrast, the news of Trajalongo's victory spread among the tribes in all the valleys near Santiago, instilling renewed enthusiasm among the Indians.
To organize them, Michimalonco called a meeting, which was attended by hundreds of Indians from the Aconcagua, Mapocho and Cachapoal valleys. There they decided on a total rebellion, which would begin by hiding all the rest of the food, in order to pressure the Castilians and the thousand Peruvian yanaconas who served them even more. Thus, "they will perish and will not remain in the land, and if by chance they wanted to persist, they would be killed on the one hand with hunger and on the other they would be reduced by war." In addition, they hoped that necessity would force the Hispanics to divide by leaving away from the village to stock up, leaving the settlement unguarded.
Faced with a lack of food and the threat of an imminent insurrection, Pedro de Valdivia ordered the arrest of Indian chiefs in the vicinity of Santiago. With obvious impatience, he told the seven caciques that he had managed to capture, "that they immediately plan for either all the Indians to come in peace, or to join together to make war, because he wanted to put an end to it once and for all, for good or for nothing." bad". He also demanded that they order "supply" to be brought to the city, and he held them until this happened. But of course there was no attack and no food arrived; they expected the Spanish to split up.
Time passed in favor of the indigenous people. Valdivia then learned that there were two concentrations of war Indians, one of 5,000 to 10,000 spears in the Aconcagua valley headed by Michimalonco and his brother Trajalongo, and another to the south in the Cachapoal river valley, land of the Promaucae, who they had never surrendered to the Spanish.
He then decided to leave with ninety soldiers, "to hit the largest" of those juntas, the one in Cachapoal, "because breaking those, the others would not have as many forces". that that land "was fertile and abundant with corn." He must have thought that with the Mapocho caciques hostage, he was inhibiting an attack by the indigenous people of that valley. He had already defeated those from Aconcagua in his own fort, and he must have estimated that he could resist them with a not very large contingent, well sheltered in the town. However, it is somewhat difficult to understand this reckless decision by Valdivia, who was always sensible in his war plans: in Santiago he left only fifty infantry and horsemen, a third of the total, divided into 32 horsemen and 18 infantry, in charge by Alonso de Monroy. To these must be added a contingent of 200 yanaconas.
With his reduced garrison, Lieutenant Monroy prepared himself as best he could to withstand the announced onslaught. The Yanaconas informed him that the Indians were approaching divided into four fronts to attack the city on each side, and he then divided his forces into four squadrons, one headed by himself and the others under the command of captains Francisco de Villagrán, Francisco de Aguirre, and Juan Jufré. He ordered his men to sleep in combat gear and with their weapons out in the open. He also arranged for the imprisoned caciques to be secured, and to patrol the perimeter of the city day and night.
Meanwhile, Michimalonco had already quietly installed his forces very close to the town. His forces added up to twenty thousand lances, according to the data of Pedro Mariño de Lobeira, although the Jesuit Diego de Rosales, who wrote a century after the events, reduces it to six thousand (it should be mentioned that Lobeira is known for frequently exaggerating the number of spears). the size of the Indian armies faced by the Spanish). They came equipped with an extremely suitable weapon: fire, "which they brought hidden in pots, and since the houses were made of wood and straw and the fences of the reed lots, the city was really burning in all four parts".
At the alert of the sentinels, the cavalry squads had rushed out to try to spear the Indians who were setting fire to the hamlet from their parapets behind the lots. Although the formidable impetus of the mounts managed to disrupt them, they were quickly remade, protected by arrows. Michimalonco planned his attack well: the arquebusiers, one of the tactical advantages of the Spaniards, could do little in the dark, and at dawn the fire dominated the entire town.
Daylight and flames showed the Indian leader that the city was vulnerable enough and he sent his assault squads to take it. From the scree on the south bank of the Mapocho, one of those squads advanced resolutely towards the compound from where the screams of Quilicanta and the imprisoned caciques could be heard above the noise of the battle. Monroy sent about twenty soldiers to block their way.
The chronicler Jerónimo de Vivar says that the hostages were in a room inside the Valdivia solar on the north side of the square, put in stocks, and that the rescue squad wanted to enter through its backyard, probably near the current corner of Puente and Santo Domingo streets. The defenders managed to contain them, but more and more refreshment Indians arrived, "which swelled (filled) the patio, which was large."
Inés Suárez, Valdivia's lover and servant, was in another room in the same house, watching the indigenous advance with increasing anguish, while treating the wounded. She realized that if the rescue took place, the increased morale of the natives would make her victory more likely. Disturbed, she took a sword and went to the prisoners' room, demanding that the guards Francisco de Rubio and Hernando de la Torre “later kill the caciques before they were helped by their own. And Hernando de la Torre telling her, more cut off with terror than with the energy to cut off heads: Madam, in what way do I have to kill them?»
"This way!", and she decapitated them herself.
Immediately the woman went out to the patio where the combat was taking place, and brandishing the bloody sword in one hand and showing the head of an Indian in the other, she yelled angrily: «Get out, even though! I've already killed you! to your lords and caciques!... And heard by them, seeing that their work was in vain, they turned their backs and those who were fighting the house fled.
Recording based on the Chronicle Mariño de Lobera: "Michimalonco commanded that while everyone drank a little to enter with more effort, some spies went to the city to tell the Spaniards that there was, wanting to know if there were some less than thirty-two on horseback and ten-eight on foot, having died in battle. The spies told the Spaniards one at a time, and they always found thirty-three horsemen. They went with this connection to General Michimalongo, who made a mockery of them, saying that they should be intoxicated and that he did not intend to know whether those on horseback were more than thirty-two, but if they were less, for there was no more a certain thing, and that they all knew without a doubt. And again sending other spies gave him the same relationship as the first ones, which did many other Indians who sent several times concording all in that those on horseback were thirty-three, which, he had also noticed Francisco de Villagrán at the time of the battle, so it was certain thing, as it was, that the gentleman who was there other than the thirty-two acquaintances was the glorious Apostle James, sent from divine relief.
All the subsequent information from the Spaniards tells that after the massacre of caciques the course of the battle turned in their favor. For example, Valdivia gave the following reasons for delivering an encomienda to Inés in a 1544 document: «Because you made them kill the caciques by putting your hands on them, which caused most of the Indians to leave and stop to fight seeing their lords dead, for it is true that if they did not die and let go, there would not be any Spaniards left alive in the whole said city. And after the caciques were dead you went out to encourage the Christians who were fighting, healing the wounded and encouraging the healthy.", has diminished in spirit until ending up defeated by that circumstance. Decisive or not, it seems that Suárez's brutal act and the leadership he later assumed improved Spanish morale, while the Indians' momentum waned. And at the end of the afternoon, the victory of the first people of Santiago was sealed by a violent cavalry charge led by Francisco de Aguirre, whose lance ended with "as much wood as blood, and with his hand so closed on it, that when he wanted to open it he could not open it.", nor any other of those who tried to open it, and so it was the last resort to saw the shaft on both sides, leaving the hand stuck in the hilt without being able to detach it until it was opened with anointing, after twenty-four hours.
But with victory came complete ruin. Valdivia describes the calamitous state in which the colony was left: «They killed twenty-three horses and four Christians, and they burned the entire city, and food, and clothing, and all the property we had, so that we were left with nothing but the rags we had for war and with the weapons we carried on our backs." To feed a thousand people, between Spaniards and Yanaconas, only "two small pigs and a suckling pig, and a cock and a chicken, and up to two wheat lunches" were saved, that is, what fits in both hands together and hollowed out. Mariño de Lobera adds, "and his calamity came to such a strait that whoever found wild legumes, lobster, mouse, and similar vermin, seemed to have a feast."
The governor, as skilled with the pen as with the sword, summed up these miseries in the following sentence from a letter addressed to the King: «The work of war, most undefeated Caesar, men can bear. Because loor (honor) is to the soldier to die fighting. But those of hunger concurring with them, to suffer them, they must be more than men."
For much less, the armies of Adelantado Almagro had returned. Those from Valdivia, on the other hand, determined to remain in the indomitable land of Chile, faced poverty with remarkable tenacity. Inés Suárez, who had saved the treasure of the three pigs and two chickens, was in charge of their reproduction. She was a good seamstress, she also mended the soldiers' rags and made clothes for them with dog hides and other animals. The handful of wheat was reserved to sow, and once harvested, they still sowed it two more times without consuming anything. Meanwhile, they fed on roots and the game of vermin and birds.
By day they plowed and sowed with weapons. At night, half of them guarded the city and the crops. They rebuilt the houses now with adobe, and built a defensive wall, of the same material, about three meters high, around the plaza, say some historians and others, which with its center covering a perimeter of nine blocks. There they stored the provisions that they managed to collect, and took refuge "in having shouted from the Indians", while those on horseback went out "to roam the field and fight with the Indians and defend our fields".
They sent Alonso de Monroy with five other soldiers to ask for help in Peru. And so that they would see the splendid prosperity of this country there and be encouraged to come, the astute Valdivia devised a unique marketing tactic: he melted down all the gold he could gather and made glasses, hilts and fittings for the swords for the travelers, and stirrups.
They left Santiago in January 1542, but the Diaguita Indians of the Copiapó Valley killed four and the survivors, Monroy and Pedro de Miranda, did not manage to escape captivity until three months later. Only in September 1543, two years after the fire in Santiago, did a ship arrive in the bay of Valparaíso with the long-awaited relief.
Valdivia was outside Santiago when a Yanacona told him that he had seen two Christians coming from the coast to the city. He galloped back, and upon seeing the pilot of the ship and his companion, the strong conqueror remained silent, looking at them, and after a while he burst into tears. «Ojos de agua devastated», recounts the witness Vivar, and adds that in silence he went to his room, «and kneeling on the ground and raising his hands to heaven, he spoke and gave many thanks to Our Lord God who He had been served in such great need to remember him and his Spaniards." Shortly after, in December, the tireless Monroy entered the Mapocho valley, at the head of a column of seventy horsemen.
Devout Catholics, the conquering host entrusted themselves, in the face of all these difficulties, to a small polychrome wooden figure of the Virgin, which Valdivia had brought from Spain and accompanied him everywhere attached to a ring on his mount. If her lieutenant managed to return with help, the Governor had promised to build a hermitage to honor her. Over time the hermitage became the church of San Francisco in La Alameda, the oldest building in Santiago. And there it is still, the tiny image of Our Lady of Help, presiding over the high altar. Long forgotten by the people of Santiago, it is the only remaining vestige of Chile's embryonic age.
Once the colony was restored, Valdivia continued with his plan of conquest. He encouraged the return of the natives to their fields and gained the then enemy Michimalonco as an ally and his acolytes, who no longer harassed the people of Santiago, even establishing a kind of trade between the indigenous and Spanish communities.
Colony Expansion
The reinforcement brought by Monroy increased the Spanish contingent to two hundred soldiers, and the merchandise from the ship Santiaguillo temporarily put an end to the tightness in Santiago. Valdivia would have wanted to leave immediately to conquer the southern territories, since he had well-founded fears that other conquerors with royal provisions would come through the Strait of Magellan. Already in 1540, when his expedition was approaching the Mapocho valley, the Indians recounted having seen a ship off the coast of Chile. It was that of Alonso de Camargo, a survivor of an unsuccessful expedition that with royal authorization had entered the Strait of Magellan from Spain.
The hardships and dangers that Monroy and Miranda faced in their adventure through the desert revealed the urgency of assigning some soldiers to establish an intermediate port between the bay of Valparaíso and Callao, and a land stopover to improve the strenuous and risky route that communicated the still precarious Chilean colony. For this purpose, in 1544 he commissioned the captain of German origin Juan Bohón, in the company of about thirty men, the foundation of the second city of the territory. La Serena was established in the valley that the natives called Coquimbo, named after the homeland of the conquering chief. The place was chosen for its fertility and its proximity to the Andacollo gold mines, just six leagues inland, which at that time had already been exploited by the local Indians to pay tribute to the Inca.
In the title extended to Pastene in 1544, Valdivia ordered him to arrive «until the Strait of Magellan”, surely knowing that his discoverer had located it beyond latitude 50°S. However, Pastene stopped in latitude 41°S It is possible that the marine, who according to Valdivia himself was "a person of great honor, fidelity and truth", has had before it some official document that indicated that the territory assigned to Valdivia came only to the 41°S parallel. At least the concession made by the viceroy La Gasca after this exploration, in 1547, indicated to the Governor an extension between Copiapó and grade 41 of southern latitude.
In a letter to Carlos V written a year after the trip of Pastene, Valdivia takes care to make a subtle change by referring to the order given to the sailor. He says: “I sent him to discover this coast towards the Strait of Magellan”.
They accompanied Pastene the Treasurer Jerónimo de Alderete, Captain Rodrigo de Quiroga, the scribe Juan de Cárdenas, Diego Osorio de Cáceres, Antonio Farabarano, Juanes de Mortedo, Juan Ellas, Captain Pedro Esteban, and Antonio Venero.
In the winter of that year, another ship arrived in Valparaíso, the San Pedro, sent by Vaca de Castro, governor of Peru at the time, and piloted by Juan Bautista Pastene, "a Genoese, a man very practical in altitude (skillful at measuring latitude) and things related to navigation". two small ships, the San Pedro and the Santiaguillo, reconnoitred the southern coasts of Chile up to the Strait, and took possession of all that territory "by Emperor Don Carlos, King of the Spains and in his name by Governor Pedro de Valdivia». The "armada" only reached a bay that they called San Pedro, like the flagship, more or less at the latitude of the current city of Osorno. On their return they discovered and took possession of the bay of Valdivia (Anilebu), possibly the mouth of the Cautín river, that of the Biobío and the bay of Penco. The fertility of the sighted lands, the abundant indigenous population, and the magnitude of the fluvial channels that made the Mapocho pale, redoubled Valdivia's anxiety to leave for the conquest of the south.
But his forces were still insufficient to launch into those densely populated regions and make effective the possession proclaimed by his explorers. Therefore, the coming of more soldiers was essential, although, as is already known, "not carrying gold it was impossible to bring a man." Then, in the summer of 1545, he dedicated great efforts to extract it from the laundries of Marga Marga and Quillota, and despite the fact that a good part of the gold extracted did not belong to Valdivia, he managed to get the portion that corresponded to his subordinates. By hook and by crook: They say that the devout Governor took advantage of the masses to “preach” the convenience of giving him the gold to send for new reinforcement and relief, “and whoever did not lend it knew that he would get it. And the skin with it! ".
He finally obtained around twenty-five thousand pesos, which he gave to Monroy, together with some powers that empowered him to incur debts in the name of Valdivia, so that he could travel again to Peru, now in the company of Pastene on the San Pedro. One by land and the other by sea would bring men, horses and merchandise.
Yet another concern was on Valdivia's mind: he was still given the title of Lieutenant Governor of the province of Chile. That was what Governor Vaca de Castro called him in a document that Monroy had brought back from Peru, and also in the authorizations that Pastene brought. Although Valdivia hid these documents and continued calling himself Governor, it was already essential for him to obtain confirmation of his position from the King, and for this he decided to send a third emissary with Monroy and Pastene, who, passing through Peru, had to continue to Spain. In a notable mistake, as will be seen later, he chose Antonio de Ulloa for this task, who had earned the Governor's trust despite being one of Pedro Sancho de la Hoz's accomplices in that assassination attempt in Atacama.
This delegate brought letters from Valdivia that gave the King a detailed account of his efforts in this conquest and the characteristics of the territory. In one of them, he enthusiastically draws Emperor Charles V a pleasing picture of Chile.
And to let the merchants and nations know that they want to come and find out, that they come, for this land is such, that in order to live in it and to perpetuate it there is no better in the world. I say it because it is very flat, most holy, very happy. It has four months of winter, no more, than in them, if it is not when the moon makes room, it rains one day or two, all the others make so cute suns, that there is no reason to come to the fire. The summer is so tempered and they run so delightful airs, that all day man can walk into the sun, that he is not caring about. It is the most abundant of pastures and seedlings, and to give all kinds of cattle and plants that can be painted. Much and very nice wood to make houses, an infinity of another wood for the service of the pearls, and the most precious mines of gold, and all the earth is full of it, and wherever they want to draw it there they will find in what to sow and with what to build and water, wood and bare for their cattle, which seems the God cry to be able to have everything in hand.Pedro de Valdivia, La Serena, September 4, 1545
About this generous description, it used to be said with sarcasm in Santiago, "that the heating of this city in the old winters, consisted of reading the letter from don Pedro de Valdivia, where he says that in Chile it is never cold".
The purpose of that pamphlet letter was for the monarch to name him Governor of the magnificent kingdom that he was conquering as a faithful vassal. And to tempt the peninsulars to come to conquer and settle the immense extensions between Santiago and the Strait that Valdivia needed to occupy. Or perhaps also, five years after his arrival, the Spanish chief already had Chile so deep in his veins that he —like a son— was incapable of seeing a flaw in it.
Arauco War
Meanwhile, his soldiers in Santiago insisted on heading south. The indigenous population of the central zone of Chile decreased considerably, due to the casualties of the war and since many fled not to serve. With insufficient Indians to distribute in encomienda among the 170 conquerors waiting in the capital town, the conquest of Chile came to a halt.
The conquest of America was based on the encomienda, which consisted of a simple but extraordinarily effective legal artifice: The Pope, with his authority, had arranged that both the territory of the Indies and its natural inhabitants were the property of the King of Spain. The Indians, who for tens of millennia inhabited America, now suddenly and by decree occupied the land of the Spanish Empire, and therefore had to necessarily pay taxes. On the other hand, the conquest expeditions obtained little or no financing from the crown, so to compensate them, the good monarch, through his representatives in the Indies, ceded or entrusted a certain number of Indians and their corresponding tribute to the officers and soldiers who had shown some merit in the conquest. But of course the natives had no money with which to pay taxes, so this payment was replaced by work for the encomenderos, who forced them to extract gold from mines and laundries. Once the conquistador collected enough gold, he often returned to Spain to enjoy his fortune. The King on his part, thus expanded his empire.
In January 1544, as soon as the first reinforcement from Monroy had arrived, Valdivia had assigned the first parcels, but the reduced indigenous population was enough for only sixty of the two hundred residents. Worse, since the number of Indians that inhabited the already conquered area was not well known, he assigned amounts to those few encomenderos that could not be completed. Even in the distribution of the natives of the city of La Serena, "so that the people I sent would go willingly, said the Governor, I deposited Indians who were never born." Informed of the abundance of inhabitants to the south of the Itata River, the soldiers who had been left without a division in Santiago urged to leave there as soon as possible to found a city and subject the neighboring Indians to the profitable regime of encomiendas.
"And since Valdivia's desire to continue the conquest was so great," he decided not to wait for reinforcements from Monroy and Pastene, which could take more than a year, and he left for southern Chile in January 1546 with an expedition of sixty soldiers. "He walked lightly, says Vivar, until he passed the mighty Itata river, the last of what he and his companions had conquered, and from then on no Spaniards had passed." They were very happy seeing the fertility of the land, its beauty and abundance and, above all, the great multitude of people that covered the valleys.
When they were in a lagoon five leagues to the south of the river (perhaps the Avendaño lagoon in what is now Quillón), a small group of Indians attacked and was easily defeated. Through the cacique of that lagoon, Valdivia learned that all the natives of the region were holding a great meeting to confront the Spaniards, and he sent word to them with the Indian chief, accompanied by a Yanacona translator, that he had come in peace, but if they wanted to fight, he would wait for them..
When crossing the Itata, the Castilians probably began to search for the Biobío and the Bay of Penco, whose latitude undoubtedly pointed out to them Pastene. The place was ideal to establish a city, but surprised by Mapuche hostility, they had to retreat.
February 1546.
Although without words, the answer was quite clear: they returned the unfortunate Yanacona well beaten. They walked two more days until they reached the area of Quilacura, "which is thirteen leagues from the seaport (the Bay of Penco)". to the middle of the world". They were the Araucanians, attacking with fury never seen by the Spanish. The battle lasted much of the night, "with the closed squadron of Indians as strong as if they were Germans", that is, as German soldiers, the bravest that Europeans had hitherto known. And finally the advantage of the mounts and the harquebuses managed to break the drowning and saved the Castilians once again. The cacique Malloquete and some two hundred Indians died, and the exhausted Spaniards counted twelve badly wounded soldiers and two dead horses.
With the indigenous people dispersed, Valdivia decided to leave the place immediately. He went to the valley of the Andalién river, where they were able to rest and treat the wounded. The next day they captured some natives, and he learned from them that the following dawn a much larger army would fall on the weakened conquistadors, "because if not a few hit at night, they wanted to attack by day." Now yes, the Spanish were lost. Valdivia gathered his main captains in a war meeting that did not take long to decide to withdraw. As soon as night fell they left the camp fires lit to make the Indians believe they were still there, and they returned to Santiago quickly but stealthily along the coast, a different path than the one they had taken on the way, to further mislead the enemy. The Arauco War was inaugurated with the Spanish soldiers and the fierce Araucanians.
However, the Spanish withdrawal was not the most relevant circumstance of that first day in Araucanian land, but rather an apparently inconsequential event. Among the captured Araucanians, a boy of about twelve years old caught Valdivia's attention. Fascinated with his intelligence and vivacity, he decided to make him his page and groom. The little boy was called Leftrarú, and he was of noble lineage, son of the chief Curiñancu. Years later the boy made yanacona would go down in history as a paradigm of his still indomitable race, the greatest toqui: Lautaro.
The second night came, past the middle of the wing, upon us three squadrons of Indians, which passed from twenty thousand, with such a great boast and impetus that seemed to sink the earth and began to fight with us so reciciously, that at thirty years I fought with various nations of people and never such a weasel I have seen in the fight as these had against us.Pedro de Valdivia tells a meeting with the Araucanians, quoted by Alvaro Jara in the War and Society in Chile.
Return to Peru
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The mind of the conqueror of Chile stayed in the south. With its copious indigenous population, the formidable Bío-Bío and the stupendous bay of Penco, "the best port in the Indies," he said. He would return as soon as Monroy's reinforcement arrived, essential to subdue the seasoned owner of that land. Not only to found a city and distribute parcels, but to establish himself there, to push the conquest to the Strait of Magellan, his eternal obsession.
But nothing was known about Monroy and Pastene. They had left La Serena at the end of 1545, and the sea voyage to Callao could take a little over a month, so yanaconas should have been sent long ago to report on their progress, according to the chief's instructions. Fearing a misfortune, in August 1546, after almost a year without news, he decided to send a new delegate. He requested another gold loan from the colonists, "voluntary" of course, raising seventy thousand pesos, and with duplicates of the correspondence to the King he dispatched Juan de Ávalos. He spent another year during which, although consumed by impatience, he remained optimistic: he increased the crops to receive the reinforcements that he trusted would arrive at any moment.
I waited in vain. Well, finally, on December 1, 1547, twenty-six months after his departure, Pastene arrived. But he came with nothing. Without Monroy, without soldiers, without merchandise, and without a peso of gold, on a ship that he had to ask for on trust.
In the laundries of Quillota he located the Governor to explain the reasons for that complete failure. The loyal Alonso de Monroy had died struck down by an infectious disease shortly after arriving in Callao. Antonio de Ulloa had betrayed him. He opened the letters that he was to take to the King and read them "in front of many other soldiers and, mocking them, he tore them up". And he joined the cause of the rebellion, whose representatives had confiscated the gold and the brig Saint Peter. Gonzalo Pizarro, who had defeated and killed Viceroy Núñez de Vela in the battle of Añaquito, led a general uprising of the conquistadors of Peru against the Crown. The main cause: under the influence of the priest Bartolomé de las Casas in Spain, new ordinances had been issued that corrected the encomienda regime in favor of the Indians, and that in practice almost abolished it. Dismayed by what they considered an unacceptable dispossession, the encomenderos of that country acclaimed Pizarro as their leader and declared their rebellion. The Crown, in response, had sent the cleric Pedro de la Gasca to pacify the region with the broadest powers, who at the time was already in Panama, from where he sent conciliatory messages and asked all the colonies for help.
Valdivia was surely burning with rage and frustration at the swarm of difficulties: the death of the most loyal of his collaborators, Ulloa's betrayal and the loss of the letters to the King.[citation required] The gold was seized, the conquest was paralyzed for lack of soldiers, and his government was in danger due to political uncertainty. However, almost together with Pastene, Diego de Maldonado arrived by land, reporting that Gonzalo Pizarro, determined and ambitious, was preparing his army in Cuzco to face the King's envoy. It was undoubtedly a great opportunity for Valdivia to reverse the unfortunate state of his project: Go to Peru and help the King's plenipotentiary representative to recover that country. If he collaborated with La Gasca, who as an ecclesiastic had no military experience, he would have to compensate him. Perhaps finally naming him Governor. He would take enough gold to provide himself with horses and equipment for the combats, to buy boats and, by the way, he would enlist the troops he needed for the conquest of southern Chile. He kept that determination a secret from him.
Because there was a problem. With the dispatch of so many delegates, the gold in the kingdom's treasury and Valdivia's own were almost exhausted. By soliciting a third "voluntary" loan from the colonists, on the other hand, he risked mutiny. So he hatched a stratagem in collusion with Francisco de Villagra and Gerónimo de Alderete. He announced that now these two captains would go for reinforcements to Peru, but that for the first and only time he authorized anyone to leave the country taking with them the gold they had collected, to demonstrate there that this land was not so miserable. At least fifteen Spaniards decided to accept the generous offer, eager to leave the poor and dangerous colony or go stock up on merchandise to return and sell it.
In mid-December everything was ready for the trip from Valparaíso. The wealth and baggage of the lucky emigrants duly inventoried on board the ship that brought Pastene. But before leaving, Valdivia offered a party on land to bid farewell to his comrades, who had endured so many hardships alongside him. While that very lively invitation was taking place, the Governor of Chile, like the meanest of rogues, managed to stealthily climb into a boat that his accomplices had prepared. He quickly boarded the ship and headed north. Immense was the surprise and then the fury at the villainy of the esteemed boss, who was fleeing with all his assets. The worst insults of the time came and went from the beach while the ship receded on the horizon.
Pedro de Urdemalas, who was nicknamed by the victims of the trap, believed that his excuse was admissible. At least for official instances, since he himself had taken the gold, but for a cause against the monarch. He declared on the ship before the notary Juan de Cárdenas, “that he had entered the ship because it was convenient for him to serve His Majesty, and that if he had not made it known up to then, it was so as not to be disturbed. He said, I am going with determination to look for a gentleman who is said to be in Panama who comes from His Majesty to follow him in his royal name." He also ordered Francisco de Villagra, already appointed interim governor, to take the part that He belonged to the product of the laundries and was paying the amounts confiscated.
None of this reassured the dispossessed, of course. Headed by Juan Romero, they conceived of transferring the government to the person who corresponded by royal decree, Pero Sánchez de la Hoz. He was at the time in the Talagante prison, and although for the first time since he associated with Valdivia he was not plotting anything at all, he received Juan Romero and accepted the offer of those harmed by the Governor although, fearful, he wanted someone else to do it. would represent. Romero urged him to write a letter stating that his titles were sufficient to take over the government in the King's name, and that he would do so as long as he was given sufficient support. Immediately he delivered the letter to Hernán Rodríguez de Monroy, who in addition to being a bitter enemy of Valdivia, was reputed to be of determined spirit. And he really was, or rather reckless, because he went to meet with Villagra, and showing Sánchez de la Hoz's statement he requested his endorsement.
Francisco de Villagra, who was also determined, drastically and unceremoniously cut the sedition. He had de La Hoz arrested, who, upon acknowledging the authorship of the representative letter that Monroy had, was beheaded without even confessing, while Juan Romero was hanged. With this brief process and his sentence, quite irregular for the rest, the conspiracies on the authority of Valdivia were diluted. But it was already a lot. The dissatisfied thought they had enough wealth to be sanctioned by a higher instance, and they managed to send their serious accusations to Peru.
Governor by King
Valdivia for his part was sailing against time in the company of Gerónimo de Alderete and a few others. Aware that the future was at stake, he tried to join La Gasca's forces before the crucial confrontation with Pizarro's host. After making a short stopover in La Serena and in the Bay of Iquique, he learned in the port of Ilo that the King's envoy, having already passed through Lima, was with his army in Jauja, and was heading to Cuzco for the great battle with the rebels. Upon disembarking in Callao and moving to Lima, he wrote to the royalist chief begging him to delay one day in each arrest, that he was marching in a hurry to catch up with him. In the capital he got horses and war equipment, and since he had good money, he equipped many other soldiers from Peru who were close to the King, who had not been able to accompany La Gasca due to lack of weapons and horses. He followed in frantic pursuit of the Viceroy, now with his detachment. "He walked in such a hurry, says Vivar, that he did in one day what the President did in three." Finally, on February 24, 1548, he caught up with him in Andahuaylas, some 50 km from Cuzco.
Pedro de la Gasca received a cordial reception. The soldiers of Peru had informed the clergyman of the strategist skills of the man from Extremadura, who had been a legend since the Battle of Las Salinas. To the disappointment of the one who claimed to be Governor of Chile, however, La Gasca only called him Captain Valdivia. But he was not discouraged, on the contrary. Appointed field master together with the also prestigious marshal Alonso de Alvarado, he immediately displayed his best efforts and all his tactical intelligence, preparing the King's militia to surprise and overwhelm Gonzalo Pizarro's men.
It wasn't easy. The revolutionaries had won a great victory in the bloody Battle of Huarina weeks before, and their field commander was Marshal Francisco de Carvajal, the mythical Demon of the Andes, of indisputable military talent and as courageous as violent and ruthless. But the arrival of the equally famous Pedro de Valdivia ignited the morale of the royalists and the priest Viceroy had done his thing, sending messages full of kindness and offering forgiveness and amnesty to the rebel troops and their main captains. More decisive and by virtue of his broad powers, La Gasca proposed that they negotiate the application of the new ordinances on the Indian encomiendas, thus cracking the support of the revolution.
In light of the facts, it seems that, to minimize the spillage of Spanish blood, those of the King aimed at the center of the adversary's morale with the following strategy: While on the one hand the shrewd priest showed with his messages all the understanding and mercy of His Majesty, on the other Valdivia and Alvarado had to show the insurmountable power of the Empire. After a notable logistical effort and a forced march, the two colonels managed to cross the steep valley of the Apurimac River with the royal army, and after some minor skirmishes, settle it at night behind the steep hills that surrounded Pizarro's camp, in the valley from Xaquixahuana, four leagues from Cuzco.
Installed on top of a hill, says Vivar, as soon as dawn broke on April 9, 1548, the Chilean ordered the best artillerymen to fire four cannon shots at the store that seemed to be the main one, Pizarro's. The shells struck, tearing apart a lieutenant of the rebel leader and wounding a couple of others. But the casualties were the least important. Valdivia was looking for the psychological blow. Overwhelming the spirits of the insurgents when they saw dawn surrounded by the army of the King to whom they once swore allegiance, which also occupied the strategic positions of the valley in perfect order and distribution. He turned out. Francisco de Carvajal, the commander of Pizarro's forces, who had served with Valdivia in Italy but was unaware that he was in Peru, recognized the hand:
—"Valdivia is on earth and rules the royal field... Or the devil!", he was heard cursing. Everything was done. Most of the rebel soldiers, impressed by the arrangement of the squadrons on the royal front, and lacking the nerve to fight the powerful imperial forces of their beloved Spain, opted to change sides after a short skirmish, and accept amnesty. that was offered to them.
—"Ah... Mr. Governor, His Majesty owes you a lot!", said Pedro de la Gasca full of satisfaction when Valdivia appeared taking the terrible Carvajal prisoner. He had made it. He was Governor of Chile by the King.
Valdivia Process - The return to Chile
«It was up to him to give the Governorship before another, said La Gasca, so that H.M. he served on this journey, and because of the news he has of Chile, and because of what he has worked for in the discovery of that land.” Valdivia then vigorously resumed the work for the conquest of Chile. He was able to enlist eighty soldiers in Cuzco, he sent them with a captain to gather provisions for the crossing of the Despoblado at the entrance to the Atacama, and wait there for the rest of the columns. He sent captains to make people to the east, in the Province of Charcas, and to the south, in Arequipa. He immediately left for Los Reyes where he bought ships, horses, provisions and supplies, setting sail after a month with three ships to the south. He disembarked near Arequipa to meet with the expedition and head it towards the Atacama.
But so great was his avidity to add every possible recruit to subdue the south of the country, that he did not measure consequences. He contravened express instructions from La Gasca in order not to enlist some notorious pizarristas sentenced to the galleys for treason against the King, nor to take Peruvian Indians to support the crossing of the desert and for service in Chile. These were valuable to La Gasca, not so concerned with abuses, but with his obligation to reward the impatient Spaniards who had fought on the King's side against Pizarro with encomiendas. In Callao, Valdivia prevented the royal officials from boarding his ships, who were trying to get off the embarked Indians. And to complete the picture of transgressions, the Governor recruited for Chile some low-life soldiers who "came stealing the land from the natives and even treated the residents of Arequipa very badly."
It didn't take long for this information to reach Viceroy La Gasca, who perhaps could have let it pass, due to the credit obtained by Valdivia in Xaquixahuana, and "because it was convenient to unload these kingdoms of people." But it was also at that time that the president learned of the execution in Chile of Pedro Sancho de la Hoz. He was told that it had been ordered by Valdivia and that the dead man was the bearer of a royal provision for the Chilean government. It was too much. If true, La Gasca was left in a very uncomfortable position; He himself clearly recounts the predicament he could be in: «If it were true that [Valdivia] had killed Pedro Sancho while he had provisions from His Majesty for the governorship of that province, instead of punishing him for having killed the governor of that province, I have given him the same governorship". Alarmed, the president sent General Pedro de Hinojosa, a man of his complete confidence, to catch up with Valdivia and find out with the greatest caution about his responsibilities in those events, among the soldiers from the camp that had already been in Chile. The delegate was to find out, "with all the secrecy he could, of the things about Chile that they had told me, and if it were true, I should try to make Valdivia return [prisoner] and send [to Chile] the people, so that they could be emptied." something that is left over on this earth."
Valdivia was with his men near Tacna in August 1548 when Hinojosa showed up. The viceroy's envoy concealed his intentions to have time to investigate, telling him that he was there only for the matter of the Indians and the misdeeds of his recruits, which were insufficient to take action against Valdivia beyond a reprimand. After a couple of days of inquiries in the camp, however, La Gasca's delegate was at least able to confirm that De la Hoz had been executed in Santiago. He immediately filled a provision that he was carrying signed in white by the Viceroy, and burst into Valdivia's store one morning with twelve arquebusiers pointing the wicks of their lit weapons at the Governor. He ordered the Chilean to accompany him to Lima to render an account of his actions before the president. Certainly the agitation spread among the hundred turbulent men of war who accompanied Valdivia and, after the surprise, they were ready to act at the first gesture of his chief. Hinojosa for his part had only those twelve arquebusiers. But he had the viceroy's signature. Valdivia restrained himself, understanding that he had to return obediently "so as not to lose what was served"; his project depended on it.
Seeing him back in Lima was a relief for Pedro de la Gasca, "who knew and appreciated his services and whose intelligence could not be hidden from him". He told him that "he was an example for all His Majesty's subjects to know how to obey in that conjuncture and time so glazed and land of bustle ». Furthermore, he stated that he was confident “that what they had said about his person were falsehoods and envy.” He treated him with special deference, allowing him to roam freely around the capital of the Viceroyalty while he carried out the investigation.
But it wasn't just envy. Like any ruler, some hated him. They felt mistreated, miserably deprived by Pedro de Urdemalas, whom they considered a tyrant. The following incident gives a clear account of this: while La Gasca was inquiring about what had happened in Chile, in October 1548 a frigate arrived in Callao with some soldiers from Chile who had come to personally complain about Valdivia to the Viceroy, "and so that provide him as governor because they would not receive him on earth." One of them, undoubtedly one of those defrauded with the gold, could not contain his fury when he saw Valdivia talking to La Gasca in the street: «Your honor must not know who this man you are talking to is... Well! know that he is a great thief and criminal, who used us the greatest cruelty that a Christian has ever used in the world!", and continued, beside himself, insulting Valdivia. This again remained calm, although as is to be expected, he had a hard time.
La Gasca seemed inclined to allow his departure to Chile, so Valdivia's enemies, determined to prevent it, hastily drafted a messy sheet containing 57 accusations, and sent it to him. The litany of complaints was well summarized by Barros Arana: 1) Disobedience to the authority of the King's delegates; 2) Tyranny and cruelty with his subordinates; 3) Insatiable greed; 4) Irreligiousness and relaxed customs with public scandal.
The accusatory document, however, had a serious defect: it was presented without a signature. Man of Law, La Gasca easily realized the ruse: "It seemed to me," wrote the Viceroy, "that they gave me [the accusation chapters] so covertly that one could suspect that those who had given them wanted to be witnesses, and for this I took information from those who had been informers in them".. On the other hand, Pedro de Villagra also came on that ship along with other neighbors related to Valdivia, with letters from the Cabildo de Santiago that pleaded in his favor and requested that the Viceroy name him Governor. In this way, the latter, but those loyal to the governor who had accompanied him on his trip to Peru, were almost the only ones who knew the facts in Chile and were empowered to testify.
For his part, summoned by La Gasca on October 30, 1548, Valdivia wrote a long document in his defense. According to Barros Arana, the defendant defended himself "with the confidence and integrity of someone who believes that he can fully justify his conduct." Finally, the president was able to establish, regarding his main concern, that the royal provision of Sancho de la Hoz empowered him only to conquer and govern the territories south of the Strait of Magellan (at that time it was believed that after the Strait a continent continued south). Regarding the other accusations, he was able to verify that "they were false, or relied on minor offenses."
In a sentence of November 19, 1548, Valdivia was acquitted and authorized to return to Chile as Governor, yes, with some conditions. Among others, that he not retaliate against his adversaries; that within six months of her arrival in Chile, he would marry or send her lover Inés Suárez to Peru or Spain, and reinstate the Indian parcels assigned to her; and to return the funds taken from individuals; «And that what he has taken and borrowed from the treasury of S.M. return it to her, and that from now on in no way take from said box ». Relieved, Valdivia willingly accepted everything that was imposed on him, declaring that "he will comply with it and he intended to comply, even if he did not order it."
The intensity of those days exacted a price as well. When he returned passing through Arequipa, around Christmas of that year, "he gave me an illness, he said himself, from fatigue and past work, which put me at the end of life." As soon as he was able to stand up, however, the conqueror of Chile continued on: «Within eight days and after the festivities, not well recovered, I left for the Tacana Valley, from where I had come, and I passed eight leagues ahead to the port of Arica".
He returned to Chile with 200 soldiers in January 1549 and upon reaching La Serena the difficulties continued. He found the city destroyed and Juan Bohón dead with 30 more Spaniards, at the hands of the Huasco indigenous people. He left instructions to his captains to rebuild it and punish the Indians, and then continued by sea to Valparaíso, arriving in April 1549.
In Santiago, things improved. He was received with true joy by the colonists, "like a friend who has come after a long absence." I left in charge on behalf of His Majesty, as the gentlemen of your profession and quality usually do and are accustomed to».
Since he had lost men in the La Serena massacre, soon after he collected thirty thousand pesos of gold and sent Villagra in one of the new ships to Peru. He had to recruit as many soldiers as he could among the many who there, Valdivia knew, did not feel well rewarded with commendations for their services to the King in the civil war. He ordered him to return by land to the eastern side of the Andes Mountains, so that before crossing to the west he would leave some of the recruits there, in a city that he was to found in that territory, included in the governorship given by The gasca.
He also sent Francisco de Aguirre to pacify the La Serena region and the Huasco and Copiapó valleys. Implacable, Aguirre cornered and executed the rebel caciques, who had taken refuge in the Valle del Límarí. "The Spaniards locked the Indians alive, both men and women, in straw huts and then set them on fire, making them die by hundreds." Thus, all danger to the definitive refoundation of La Serena was eliminated.
Then Pedro de Valdivia's gaze turned, once again, towards the south. He finally believed he was in a position to launch into the invasion and conquest of the land of the Mapuche, and what lay beyond.
Arauco War
Battle of Andalién and foundation of Concepción
In January 1550 he began a new campaign to the south following the route he had taken three years earlier. Valdivia was ill again, but he had himself transported by the Yanaconas during the journey, taking from time to time his horse in charge of his page, Lautaro. On January 24, he reached the Penco area and reached the Bío-Bío and crossed it, while groups of locals watched him, at night a mass of two thousand of them attacked him, being rejected, after this on February 22 he arrived at the Andalien River, where he camped.
At night, a squadron of Araucanians of approximately 10,000 individuals appeared giving a great rattle and kicking the ground and a furious three-hour pitched battle began, seeing itself seriously compromised for the Spanish, where a charge on foot and lancers relieved the situation leaving a Spaniard dead and several Yanaconas wounded.
Valdivia entrenched himself in the place, which would give foundation to the city of Concepción. Nine days later the Araucanians appeared again, formed in squadrons armed with axes, arrows, and spears, plus maces and clubs, and attacked the fort. The battle was decided in a single cavalry charge, in which 900 Indians were killed or badly wounded. In this battle he was executed by Jerónimo de Alderete, his ally Michimalonco.
Valdivia ordered the survivors to amputate their right hand and nose as a sign of punishment and released them to sow panic, this way of waging war would turn against the Spaniards themselves. This action also fostered the irrevocable hatred of an Indian he had as a page named Lautaro.
Valdivia remained throughout that year of 1550 in the Penco fort, formally founding Santa María De La Inmaculada Concepción, which would be the third important town after La Serena and Santiago. The Royal Audience would be installed there.
Along with this, Valdivia established a relationship with María Encio, who came with him from Peru and brought from Santiago and daughter of one of his moneylenders.
The town was a fort and was surrounded by semi-swampy areas, as well as being an area of great rainfall and long winters. Valdivia, due to his convalescence from his illness, could not advance further, partly also due to the advance of winter. In the future, Concepción would be the main stronghold in the Arauco War.
Campaign of 1551 and foundation of Valdivia
In February 1551, Valdivia, in the company of Pedro de Villagra, undertook a campaign from Concepción with 170 soldiers, and as always, an unrecorded number of Yanaconas, and reached the banks of the Cautín River and founded a fort near the Damas River tributary, leaving Pedro de Villagra entrusted with the mission of finishing it.
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Within this campaign, he arrives at the valley of Guada(ba)lafquén (current city of Valdivia), and noticing that it was located on the banks of the Ainilebu (river of the Ainil) that they had named seven years before in honor of He with the name of Valdivia, decides to found a city that will bear his last name, that is how he founded the city of Valdivia, on February 9, 1552, on the banks of the Valdivia river, a continuation of the Calle-Calle river. A witness describes the event:
Seen the Governor so good region and place to populate a city and riverside, and having such a good port (say) founded a city and established the city of Valdivia, and made mayors and regiment. Fundóse (conclude) el 9 de febrero año de MDLIIJerome of Bibar
In April 1552, he returned to the brand new fort with more than a year of operations and founded the fourth Spanish city called La Imperial, this because he found in the indigenous hostages eagles with two heads carved in wood, similar to the emblem of Carlos V.
At some point during these events, his page, Lautaro, fled with his horse, a helmet, and Godínez's order bugle.
The foundation attracted many settlers due to the quality of the land, the abundance of wood and privileged surroundings.
He went further into the mountains and on the shores of a large lake he founded the city of Villarica, as a mining settlement due to the abundance of silver mines.
Making a deep advance towards the south, it reaches the Reloncaví sine and sees the island of Chiloé in the distance. This is the maximum advance point of Valdivia towards the Strait of Magellan. This period was characterized by being strangely calm in the Arauco war, in fact only local skirmishes were recorded. Valdivia believed for a moment that the region had been pacified due to the punishment given to the natives in the battle of Andalíen.
In reality, the strange Mapuche apathy was due to other causes.
Valdivia instructed Gerónimo de Alderete to travel to Spain, instructing him to confirm his appointment as Governor by royal decree, deliver the Quinto Real, and bring his wife Marina Ortiz de Gaete to Chile.
Campaign of 1553
In the summer of 1553, Valdivia founds the forts of Tucapel, Arauco and Purén and establishes the foundations of the fifth and last city founded by the conqueror, Los Confines de Angol, close to the aforementioned forts.
In 1553 some auxiliaries from the Villarica mines escaped and killed a Spaniard. The captains of the forts noticed the unmistakable symptoms of an indigenous uprising and raised the alarm in Concepción.
Valdivia dispatched Gabriel de Villagra to La Imperial and Diego de Maldonado with four men to Tucapel. On the way, Indians ambushed them, surviving Maldonado and a fourth seriously wounded man who was able to reach the Arauco fort.
At the same time, indigenous people - under the command of Caupolicán - introduced covert weapons into the Purén fort and, had it not been for the warning of a tell-tale Indian, plus some reinforcements brought by Gómez de Almagro from La Imperial, the Spaniards would have suffered carnage as hordes of Indians had gathered at siesta time to attack the fort. The Spanish observed that the Indians attacked in a very different way from previous battles and organized as a copy of Spanish tactics. Such was their effectiveness that they locked themselves in the fort, sending a notice to Valdivia about the extreme gravity of the situation.
The indigenous people intercepted the emissary during his departure from the fort, under Lautaro's instructions, they let him continue and on his return he brought Valdivia's instructions to meet him in Tucapel, where he was captured by Lautaro's hosts.
Lautaro brought out his cunning by retaining Gómez de Almagro in the fort of Purén, he had a well-trained Indian captured and as soon as the Spaniards interrogated him, he said that as soon as the Spaniards left the fort they would be strongly attacked.
Battle of Tucapel and death of Valdivia
Valdivia, personally in command, left with 50 horsemen plus auxiliaries from Concepción on December 23, 1553 to demand the fort of Tucapel, where he believed the forces of Gómez de Alvarado had already gathered. He spent the night in Labolebo, on the banks of the Lebu River, and early in the morning he sent an advance patrol with five soldiers led by Luis de Bobadilla.
Already half a day from the Tucapel fort, it was very strange not to have any news of Captain Bobadilla. On Christmas Day of 1553, he set out at dawn and upon reaching the vicinity of the Tucapel hill he was surprised by the absolute silence that prevailed. The fort was completely destroyed and without a Spaniard in the vicinity.
While making camp in the smoking ruins, chivateos (shouting) and pounding on the ground were heard in the forest. Then a large group of Indians rushed towards the Spaniards. Valdivia was barely able to assemble his defensive lines and withstand the first clash. The cavalry charged the rear of the enemy, but the Mapuche planned this maneuver, and they arranged lancers who energetically contained the charge. The Spanish managed to break up the first charge of the Indians[citation required], who withdrew with low floods from the hill to the forests[citation required ].
However, they had barely lowered their swords when a new indigenous squad burst in; they rearmed lines and returned to charge with the cavalry. The Mapuche, in addition to the lancers, had men armed with maces, boleadoras, and lassoes, with which they managed to dismount the Spanish horsemen, and hit their skulls with their mallets when they tried to rise from the ground.
The picture was repeated once more: after the sound of a horn, the second squad withdrew with some casualties, and a third contingent appeared in battle. Behind this strategy of the refreshment battalions was Lautaro.
The situation of the Castilians became desperate. Valdivia faced with exhaustion and casualties, gathered the available soldiers and launched into the fierce fight. Already half of the Spaniards were lying in the field and the auxiliary Indians were dwindling.
At one point in the fight, seeing that their lives were leaving, Valdivia turned to those still around him and said:
"What are we doing?
Captain Altamirano responds:
"What does your honor want us to do but fight and die!"
Soon the result of the battle was defined and finally the chief ordered the withdrawal, but Lautaro himself fell on the flank causing the disbandment. It was just what Valdivia did not want and the Indians dropped one by one on the isolated Spaniards. Only the governor and the clergyman Pozo, who rode very good horses, managed to take the escape route. But while crossing some swamps, the horses got bogged down and were captured by the Indians.
According to some historians, in an act of retaliation for the mutilations and massacres of the indigenous people that he ordered after the battle of Andalién, Valdivia was taken to the Mapuche camp where he was killed after three days of torture, which included similar beheadings to those carried out by the conquistador to punish the Indians in that battle.[citation required] According to Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo, the martyrdom continued with the amputation of his muscles in life, using sharp clam shells, and eating them lightly roasted in front of their eyes. Finally, they extracted the raw meat of its heart to devour it among the victorious toquis, while they drank chicha from its skull, which was preserved as a trophy.[ citation needed] Chief Pelantarú returned it 55 years later, in 1608, along with that of Governor Martín Óñez de Loyola, who died in combat in 1598.
According to the chronicler Carmen de Pradales, Valdivia's death occurred as follows:
Being imprisoned by the Indians, they decided how to punish Valdivia. In these that an Indian boss came from behind, grabbed a club and took a trip in the cogot. He smooched him.
This account of Valdivia's death was one of the most widespread orally in the early days among those who were in the vicinity of Tucapel.
The end of Valdivia according to Jerónimo de Vivar reported in his Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los Reynos de Chile (1558), chapter CXV:
[...] and [Valdivia] of that day weary, the Indians took him. He spoke to the Indians there and told them not to kill him, that the damage they had done to their Spaniards was enough. Ansi the Indians were of various opinions, that some said to kill him and others that gave him life. As they are people of such a ruin understanding, not knowing or understanding what they were doing at this time, there came an Indian evil, which Teopolican was said to be lord of the part of that town, and told the Indians what they were doing with the apo [Valdivia] that because they did not kill him, "that dead that commands the Spaniards we will easily kill those who remain." Sayole with a spear I've said and killed him.
Ansi perished and finished the vicious governor who had been so far in all that until this day he began and began. They carried the head to Tucapel and put it at the door of the master in a stick and two other heads with it, and they had them there by grandeur, because those three Spaniards had been the most courageous, [...] I was informed of yanaconas ladynos and Indians who found themselves and escaped there.
Portrait and self-portrait of Pedro de Valdivia
It was Valdivia, when he died, fifty-six years old, natural from a place of Extremadura, called Castuera, a man of good stature, with a cheerful face, the big head according to the body, which had become fat, spaldued, chest width, man of good understanding, though of words not well smooth, liberal and made mercedes graciously. After he was a lord, he was very happy to give what he had: he was generous in all his things, friend of walking well dressed and lustful and of the men who walked him, and of eating and drinking well: affable and human with all.Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo, compañeros de Valdivia
In order to govern the vassals of V.M., I was the captain to encourage them in the war, and to be the first to the dangers, because it so agreed. Father to encourage them with what I could and to hurt their jobs, helping them to pass as children, and friend in talking to them. Geometric to trace and populate; alarife to make acequias and distribute waters; labrador and gañán in the sementera; wholesale and rabadán to breed cattle. And finally, populator, breeder, supporter, conqueror and discoverer.Pedro de Valdivia, La Serena, September 4, 1545
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Battles of Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia was one of the few conquistadors who was a professional soldier (unlike Cortés or Almagro); he in fact stood out in the service of the king of Spain not only in America but also in Europe.
- Battle of Villalar (on the communal side)
- Battle of Pavia (in charge of a third division of the Fisheries Marquis)
- Saco de Rome
- Battle of the Salinas (Maestre de Campo)
- Battle of Quilacura
- Battle of Jaquijahuana
- Battle of Andalién
- Battle of Penco
- Battle of Tucapel
Tributes
The city of Valdivia, in southern Chile, was named for him in honor of his last name. In subsequent centuries, different places and streets in Chile have been named "Pedro de Valdivia", including the Pedro de Valdivia saltpeter office in the north of the country and Pedro de Valdivia avenue in Santiago. The same with Avenida Pedro de Valdivia de Concepción. The vast majority of Chilean cities have a street, avenue, park or neighborhood named after Don Pedro, the founder of Chile. Between 1977 and 2000, Chilean 500-peso bills were printed with his face on the obverse, and in 1975 two Chilean astronomers discovered an asteroid that they named (2741) Valdivia in his honor.
| Predecessor: Establishment of the post (Pre-Hispanic Chile) | Governor of the Kingdom of Chile
| Successor: Francisco de Villagra Velásquez |
| Predecessor: Francisco de Villagra Velásquez | Governor of the Kingdom of Chile
| Successor: Francisco de Villagra Velásquez Rodrigo de Quiroga López de Ulloa Francisco de Aguirre de Meneses |
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